A CPIML team visited Islamnagar Tola in Kodra village, Siddharthnagar District, Uttar Pradesh on 17 May 2022 to find out the facts in the incident where a woman Roshni (50) w/o Akbar Ali died when she was shot in the neck during police action on the night of 14-15 May.
Releasing the report to the press, CPIML’s UP State Secretary Sudhakar Yadav said that according to eyewitnesses Roshni was shot by none other than the police who were taking away her son with them; the person Jitendra Yadav whom the police are naming as the accused is a police informer now being made a scapegoat by the police.
According to the CPIML report, the story of cow slaughter being touted by the police is false and a figment of imagination. Local youth Rajkumar told the team that there has never been any talk of cow slaughter in the village. Islamnagar Tola is predominantly Muslim and populated by the Banjara community. They are mostly workers and some earn their living in Mumbai.
The deceased Roshni's father-in-law told the team that on the night of 14-15 May about 25 persons, some in uniform and some not, entered the victim's house. Most of them carried rifles, but the persons in civil dress (half pants and shirt) carried sticks. This was confirmed to the enquiry team by many local residents as well. When Abdul asked the police why they had come, they levelled a rifle at him and threatened to kill him. The police dragged out 30 year old Abdur-Rahman and started taking him away. His mother Roshni came from inside and asked why they were taking him away. Abdur-Rahman had returned from Mumbai 5 days ago to attend his sister's wedding on 30 May. When Roshni tried to free her son, the police shot her and she was hit by a bullet in the neck. Family members took her by motorcycle to Naugarh District Hospital but she was declared dead on arrival.
When they returned with the body at first the police denied having taken away Abdur-Rahman, but when the family members said they would protest with Roshni's dead body, they returned Abdur-Rahman to the family. A panchnama was made and Roshni's body was sent for post-mortem.
The CPIML team has demanded that the guilty police personnel should be sent to jail on murder charges, the non-uniformed members of the raid team should be identified and a judicial enquiry should be constituted into the entire matter to expose the police conspiracy. They also demanded action against the SP and DM for trying to cover up the facts of the incident, and an end to the police terror being created in the Muslim community in the area.
The enquiry team comprised CPIML State Committee members Rajesh Sahni and Ramlaut Prasad, RYA leader Renu Bala and Shakoor Alam.
CPIML Demands Judicial Inquiry into Siddharthnagar Incident, Demands Action
CPIML submitted a memorandum on 20 May 2022 to the Governor via the DM and demanded a judicial enquiry into the death of Roshni who was shot and killed by a police bullet during a police raid.
Submitting the memorandum at the Basti DM office, CPIML District in-charge Ramlaut said that the party fact-finding team had visited the site of the killing. They spoke to the local people and found that it was a bullet fired by the police during the raid that hit Roshni in the neck and killed her. In order to save themselves the police have now made their informer the accused person. Our demand is that a high level judicial enquiry should be conducted into this incident so that the culprits are identified and the innocent go free.
